Means for dispensing predetermined quantities of powdered or granulated materials



Dec. 10, 1968 Filed Jan. 10, 1967 E. CROSSLEY E. MEANS FOR DISPENSINGPREDETERMINED QUANTITIES 0F 'POWDERED OR GRANULATED MATERIALS 2Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR:

CR'OSSLEV BY Ag Mun -& $13, (C 51 ERNEST ELL! 5 Dec. 10, 1968 E. E.CROSSLEY G PREDETERMINED QUANTITIE OF POWDERED OR GRANULATED MATERIALSMEANS FOR DISPENSIN 2 SheetsSheet 2 Filed Jan. 10, 1967 J INVENTOR:A/:51 ELLIS CROSSLEY United States Patent 3,415,424 MEANS FOR DISPENSINGPREDETERMINED QUANTITIES OF POWDERED 0R GRAN U- LATED MATERIALS ErnestE. Crossley, Lytham St. Annes, England, assignor to Ditchburn VendingMachines Limited, Lytham, England, a corporation of Great Britain FiledJan. 10, 1967, Ser. No. 608,432 Claims priority, application GreatBritain, Jan. 11, 1966, 1,142/ 66 9 Claims. (Cl. 222-311) ABSTRACT OFTHE DISCLOSURE Dispensing means for granulated or powdered material, forexample for dispensing dry ingredients such as coffee, tea and sugar ina beverage vending machine, comprising a tube having an open end intowhich a feed screw extends for feeding the material to a deliveryopening in an end wall at the other end of the tube, shutter means beingprovided by varying the effective size of the delivery opening, and aby-pass opening being disposed in the side wall of the tube, fordiverting material from the inner side of the delivery opening, meansbeing provided for varying the effective size of the by-pass opening,the latter means and the shutter being interconnected so that when oneopening is enlarged the other opening will be reduced, and vice versa.The said tube may be disposed within an outer tube which also has anoutlet opening in its end wall and a bypass opening in its side wall,the two tubes being rotatable relatively to one another to bring the twooutlet openings and the two by-pass openings into and out of registerwith one another respectively.

In beverage vending machines, dry ingredients such as coffee, tea andsugar are contained in cannisters and predetermined quantities of theseingredients are dispensed as required for mixing with liquid, e.g. waterand/or milk. The usual means for this purpose comprises a feed screw inthe bottom of the cannister, adapted to force material through adelivery opening, driving means for the feed screw being adapted torotate the feed screw through a predetermined number of revolutions. Thequantity of material dispensed by such apparatus can be varied either byvarying the number of revolutions of the feed screw on each dispensingoperation, or by changing the feed screw for one of larger size or ofdifferent pitch. In any of these methods, a mechanical change isrequired, e.g. a change in the driving mechanism or substitution of adifferent feed screw.

The present invention is designed to provide a dispensing mechanism, forpowdered or granulated material, which is capable of being readilyadjusted to vary the quantity of material dispensed on each dispensingoperation. Whilst the invention is primarily designed for use inbeverage vending machines, it can equally well be adapted for dispensingpre-determined quantities of powdered or granulated materials for otherpurposes.

According to the invention, a feed screw is adapted to feed powdered orgranulated material to a delivery opening, means, such as a shutter,being provided for varying the effective size of the delivery opening,and a bypass opening also having means for varying its effective size isadapted to divert material from the inner side of the delivery opening,the means for varying the effective size of the said two openings beingcoupled whereby when one opening is enlarged the other opening will bereduced and vice versa.

One particular arrangement of a feed screw in a dry ingredientscannister, according to the invention, together with a modification,will now be described by way of ex- 3,415,424 Patented Dec. 10, 1968ample only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a dry ingredients cannister,incorporating the dispensing means,

FIGURE 2 is a front view of the lower portion of the cannisterillustrating the variable delivery opening,

FIGURE 3 is a section on the line IIIIII of FIG- URE 2,

FIGURE 4 is a section on the line IV-1V of FIG- URE 3,

FIGURE 5 is a plan view of the dispensing means and illustrates avariable bypass opening,

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of an inner sleeve for the deliveryscrew,

FIGURE 7 is a view similar to FIGURE 6 but showing an outer sleeve, and

FIGURE 8 is a section on the line VIllI--VIII of FIG- URE 2 butillustrating a modified form of delivery screw.

Referring to the drawings, the particular arrangement illustrated isintended for the dispensing of powdered or granulated ingredients in abeverage vending machine. In this example, the powdered or granulated]material is contained in a cannister 10 and a feed screw 11 is disposedin the bottom of the cannister, a drive shaft 12 projecting from therear end of the feed screw through an opening in the rear wall of thecannister 10, the shaft 12 being connected through reduction gearing 13to an electric motor 14 for driving the feed screw 11. The forward endportion of the feed screw 11 is enclosed in a tube 15 the front end ofwhich has an end wall 16 with a delivery opening 17 therein. This tube,which will be called the inner tube 15, is fitted within an outer tube18 and is rotatable about the common axis of the two tubes relatively tothe outer tube 18 which latter also has a front end wall 19 with adelivery opening 20. The outer tube 18 is rotatable about its axis in anopening 21 in the front wall 22 of the cannister 10, the front end wall19 of the outer tube 18 being aligned with or projecting slightly infront of the front wall 22 of the cannister, and the front end wall 16of the inner tube 15 hearing against the inner surface of the front endwall 19 of the outer tube 18.

The front end wall of each tube comprises substantially a semicircle, sothat by rotating one tube relatively to the other tube, the effectivedelivery opening can be varied between half the area of the front endwall and a fully closed position, that is, from a position in which thesemi-circular end walls 16 and 19 are in register with one another to aposition where they are fully out of register so that the end wall ofeach tube obscures the opening in the end wall of the other tube.However, it is not desired that the opening should ever be fully closed,and that being so, a radially disposed lever 23 projects from the frontend of the inner tube 15 through the opening 20 in the front end wall 19of the outer tube 18, to serve for manually rotating the inner tube 15,and this lever 23 will prevent the delivery opening being fully closed.A similar radial lever 24 projects from the front end of the outer tube18, for manually rotating the outer tube.

The tube 15 has an axially disposed slot 25 and the tube 18 has asimilar slot 26, the two slots being arranged so that they can bebrought into and out of register with one another by rotating one tuberelatively to the other tube. In this way, the effective size of theopening provided by the two slots 25 and 26 can be varied, this openingbeing the bypass opening. The slots 25 and 26 are so disposed around thetwo tubes with relation to the positions of the openings 17 and 20 inthe end walls of the tubes, that as the delivery opening formed by theopenings 17 and 20 is being reduced, the by-pass opening provided by theslots 25 and 26 will be enlarged, and. vice versa. As the manipulatinglevers 23 and 24 are disposed at the front ends of the tubes, andproject at the front of the cannister 10, adjustment of the openings canbe effected readily, and the need for mechanical adjustments orsubstitution of parts is avoided. The by-pass opening of the slots 25and 26 may be arranged to close fully when the delivery opening 17, 20is at its maximum size.

In operation, material will be fed through the delivery opening, therate of delivery depending on the effective size of the deliveryopening, and when the delivery opening is partly closed, the by-passopening will be opened to a corresponding degree to permit excessmaterial to flow therethrough and back into the cannister.

The feed screw 11 extends from the rear wall of the cannister andthrough the inner tube 15, and has a pin 27 projecting from its forwardend into engagement with notches 28 in the end walls 16 and 19 of thetubes and 18. The thread 29 of the screw 11 serves to feed material fromthe cannister into the inner tube 15 and extends into the rear endportion of the inner tube. The thread at the forward end of the screw 11has its outside diameter reduced as shown at 30 in FIGURE 3, thusleaving a clearance between the forward thread portion 30 and the innertube. An alternative arrangement for the feed screw 11 is shown inFIGURE 8, the thread 29 extending into the rear end portion of the innertube 15 as in the arrangement shown in FIGURE 3, but instead of reducingthe forward thread portion stepwise, the outside diameter of the forwardportion of the thread is reduced progressively so as to be substantiallyconical as indicated at 31.

I claim:

1. Means for dispensing granulated, powdered or other particulatematerial comprising a tube having an open end and having an opposite endprovided with an opening for delivery of material, adjustable shuttermeans for varying the effective size of said delivery opening, meansproviding a by-pass opening in the side of said tube, adjustable meansfor varying the effective size of said side wall by-pass opening, a feedscrew extending into said open end of the tube for feeding materialtoward said openings, said by-pass opening being adapted to divertmaterial from the tube at the inner side of said delivery opening, andmeans for operatively coupling and associating said adjustable meanswhereby when one of said openings is enlarged the other is reduced, andvice versa.

2. Dispensing means according to claim 1, in which the feed screw isdisposed substantially horizontally in the bottom of a container for thematerial to be dispensed,

and a drive shaft projects from the rear end of the feed screw throughthe rear wall of the container and is operatively connected to a drivingmotor, and the delivery opening is disposed in the front wall of thesaid container.

3. Dispensing means according to claim 2, wherein the forward end ofsaid feed screw extends relatively rotatably into engagement with arecess in the end of said tube at said delivery opening.

4. Dispensing means according to claim 1, wherein said tube is disposedwith an outer tube having a delivery Opening in an end wall adjacent thedelivery opening in the inner tube, and said tubes are relativelyrotatable about a common axis to vary the registry of their delivery andby-pass openings.

5. Dispensing means according to claim 4, in which each delivery openingcomprises approximately one half of the end wall of the correspondingtube and each bypass opening comprises an axially disposed slot in thecorresponding tube.

6. Dispensing means according to claim 5, in which the forward endportion of the feed screw within the inner tube is of reduced diameterto leave clearance between it and the said tube.

7. Dispensing means according to claim 5, in which the forward endportion of the feed screw within the inner tube is progressively reducedin diameter so as to be substantially conical.

8. Dispensing means according to claim4, in which a lever on the innertube extends through the delivery opening of the outer tube for rotatingthe inner tube relatively to the outer tube.

9. Dispensing means according to claim 4, wherein the delivery openingend of said outer tube is rotatably mounted in the front wall of saidcontainer.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1/1948 Mueller et al. 222185/1959 Hansen 10341 X US Cl. X.R.

